Somalis hope for peace as Donald Trump targets terrorists

The aftermath of a car bomb in Mogadishu in NovemberMOHAMED ABDIWAHAB/AFP/GETTY

A sign at the entrance to Mogadishu’s peace park warns visitors not to bring in grenades, pistols or Kalashnikovs. Yet the shattered city, a byword for war and violence, is now the focus of a construction boom — even if most new buildings come with high blast walls.

The once-deserted Lido beach is busy, as is the airport, where accents from Manchester and Birmingham can be heard as the Somali diaspora returns, along with Turks, Emiratis and Chinese.

Mogadishu is overlooked by a high and heavily guarded fence, separating the city from the sprawling green zone where foreigners live. Yet after almost three decades of civil war and terror — and almost eight years after the Islamist terrorist group al-Shabaab abruptly pulled back from its streets —…

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